Sony Ericsson Announces Unlocking of Bootloaders on Xperia Phones

Android developers have yet another reason to rejoice today: Sony Ericsson will be unlocking the bootloader on some of its hottest phones.

In an announcement on its developer blog, the Japanese/Swedish manufacturer responds to the common cries from the developer community to allow their phones’ bootloaders to be unlocked. While they say that they haven’t had a sufficiently secure solution in place up until now to allow this to be done, they now have a solution which they feel is ready for public release.

An unlocked bootloader means that new custom ROMs (essentially alternative operating systems) can be installed on these phones.

Only Some Xperia Phones to be Unlocked

But don’t start celebrating just yet – not all of the Xperia line will actually be unlocked. While SE hasn’t give us the full specifics yet, they did say that a “number of requirements” will need to be fulfilled in order to unlock.

How to Tell if your Xperia Can be Unlocked

The only surefire way to find out whether you’re phone is unlockable is to use the “Fastboot” tool included in the SDK.

All the standard caveats apply: unlocking your phone’s bootloader will likely void its warranty, and potentially turn it into a very expensive brick.

Sony Ericsson cautions us that the custom ROMs we may install have not gone through their rigorous testing program, and could have unexpected results.

But isn’t that exactly why we wanted it unlocked?

Sound off below – let us know if you’re planning to unlock your Xperia phone.